Tue March 18, 2014

Space Thief Or Hero? One Man's Quest To Reawaken An Old Friend

Early days: NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer C (also known as ISEE-3 and ICE) was undergoing testing and evaluation inside the Goddard Space Flight Center's dynamic test chamber when this photo was snapped in 1976.

Whatever name it sailed under — International Sun-Earth Explorer 3, and International Cometary Explorer, among others --- this spacecraft has scored a number of firsts over the years, including the first comet flyby.

During a 2010 symposium commemorating a quarter-century of comet discoveries, Farquhar (left) swapped stories with James L. Green, NASA's director of planetary science.

Paul E. AlersNASA

More than 30 years ago, Robert Farquhar stole a spacecraft.

Now he's trying to give it back.

The green satellite, covered with solar panels, is hurtling back toward the general vicinity of Earth, after nearly three decades of traveling in a large, looping orbit around the sun.

If Farquhar, a former mission design specialist for NASA, gets his way, the agency will command the spacecraft to fire its thrusters, veer close to the moon, and slip back into the spot where it was intended to be when it was launched in 1978 — and where it was when Farquhar and his accomplices "borrowed" it.

Back in the 1980s, space agencies were racing to Halley's comet. But NASA wasn't going — officials said a comet mission was too expensive. That did not sit well with Farquhar, who had dreamed of achieving the first comet encounter ever.

Farquhar came up with a complicated trajectory that would let this spacecraft intercept a different comet called Giacobini-Zinner in September of 1985, months before the armada of other space probes would arrive at Halley's.

"We beat all the other countries of the world," recalls Farquhar. "The European Space Agency. The Russians. The Japanese."

President Reagan even sent him a congratulatory letter.

But some of the scientists who'd been using ISEE-3 to study things like solar wind were not amused by the comet caper.

"They thought that — it was in the newspapers, even — that we stole their spacecraft," says Farquhar. "We didn't steal it; we just borrowed it for a while! That's what I tried to tell them."

After all, he notes, the spacecraft was set on a course that would eventually bring it back.

"OK, so we took it away in 1983 and you get it back in 2014. How many years is that?" says Farquhar, quickly calculating. "Oh, that's about 31 years."

Farquhar is now 81 years old. He's been called the master of getting to places. His genius is inventing esoteric flight plans that take advantage of gravitational boosts from the moon and close flybys of Earth to send space probes zipping around the solar system in surprising ways.

He's so adept at calculating these exotic trajectories that often, just for fun, he's made sure that key mission events fall on birthdays or anniversaries.

The exploits of ISEE-3 were the first ones to really show off what Farquhar could do. "Certainly all the people in the space business know that that's my spacecraft. It's very personal with me," he says.

His memoir makes it clear how personal. For example, Farquhar writes that when he was hospitalized after a heart attack, the spacecraft suffered a battery failure — making him believe they shared a "supernatural connection."

"It's my baby," says Farquhar. "It's something I worked on for a long time and I had to sell it to NASA, and sell it to a lot of people."

What Farquhar is selling now is the idea of waking up this old satellite and doing what he promised.

There's a short window in the next few months, before August, when ISEE-3 could be commanded to slow down and follow a flight path that would return it to the spot where it was stationed before it went off chasing comets.

"It would not just be a curiosity. It would actually be a useful scientific tool," says Daniel Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado.

These days, other satellites monitor space between the Earth and the sun, says Baker. But he believes ISEE-3 could provide additional measurements that would be valuable.

"It's not often that something that you've sent off supposedly into oblivion sort of comes back to you," says Baker, who worked with data from ISEE-3 when he was younger. "It really, to me, is a fascinating thing that we can even dream of reassembling the puzzle here and put it back the way, sort of, it was — before Bob stole the spacecraft."

But waking up an old spacecraft, as though it were Rip Van Winkle, is not easy.

"No other spacecraft has been what you might call asleep for such a long period of time," says Edward Smith, one of the scientists who worked on the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "I'll believe it when I see it, but it's an exciting opportunity and I'm taking it seriously."

People have been scrambling to see what's possible. They've had to dive into archives and pull out old documents to figure out things like, what language does this machine even speak?

Not everyone who used to work on ISEE-3 is still around.

James Green is now director of the planetary science division at NASA headquarters. When he was in his 30s, he set up a state-of-the-art computer network to help researchers quickly get their data during the spacecraft's comet mission. He recently sat in his office, reviewing a list of the spacecraft's science instruments and the researchers who were in charge of them, way back when.

Another problem is that some of the old equipment needed to talk to the spacecraft is just ... gone. NASA got rid of it when systems were modernized, says Green, who explains that "deep space communication has changed radically over the last 25 years."

But it looks like an 18-meter satellite dish at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory still has the right hardware. "And so NASA has given them the approval to be able to try that out," Green says.

Workers there are trying to see how well they can communicate with the spacecraft and assess its condition. This is still a kind of unofficial effort, however, because NASA managers haven't made any firm commitment to this spacecraft — despite Farquhar's relentless lobbying.

"You know, Bob Farquhar is a man of his word. If he said he would do everything he could — because he's borrowed the spacecraft — to put it back, that's what he's going to try to do," Green says.

He says Farquhar is a legendary figure around NASA. "We owe a lot to Bob's creativeness to get our spacecraft in locations that we want them," he says. "And so from that perspective he's really a neat guy, really important in our field."

Meanwhile, Farquhar isn't optimistic that this particular spacecraft will end up where he wants it.

"Well, I think the chances are, oh, 50-50," he says.

When he recently sat down at home to talk about his quest, he was wearing plaid flannel pajamas and a robe because he wasn't feeling well. Still, he spoke for nearly two hours.

"It's the most cost-effective spacecraft we ever had and I'd like to make it even more cost-effective. It can do more missions," says Farquhar.

But only if a command is sent soon, by late May or early June. This is his last chance.

If ISEE-3's path doesn't change, it will fly by the Earth and the moon in August. David Dunham of KinetX Aerospace, Inc., one of Farquhar's long-time collaborators, says the encounter will change its orbit. The spacecraft will swing back toward Earth again in about 15 years, but it won't be close enough to recapture.

"If we miss this time, then it just would be too far from the Earth," says Dunham. "I haven't looked — maybe sometime two centuries from now it might come close enough to the Earth again."

But at that point, Dunham says, who knows if the spacecraft would still be alive.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

On Sept. 10th, 1985, on this program, we reported about a triumph for NASA.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

BOB EDWARDS: Tomorrow morning, a recycled U.S. satellite will encounter the little-known but very bright Giacobini-Zinner Comet.

GREENE: It was the first time a spacecraft had ever visited a comet. Since then, the probe has spent almost three decades on a large, looping orbit around the sun. Its lonely trek will soon bring it close to Earth once again, and NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that one man is on a quest to reconnect with this vintage piece of space hardware.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Back in the 1980s, space agencies were racing to be the first to fly by a comet - Halley's Comet, to be precise. But NASA wasn't going because it was too expensive. That did not sit well with a NASA mission designer named Bob Farquhar. He figured out how to divert an existing satellite that was stationed between the Earth and the sun. He came up with a complicated trajectory that would let it intercept a different comet months before the armada of other space probes would arrive at Halley's.

BOB FARQUHAR: We beat all the other countries of the world - the European Space Agency, the Russians, the Japanese.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says he got a congratulatory letter from President Ronald Reagan, though not everyone was amused by the comet caper, like some of the scientists who'd been using that spacecraft, called ISEE-3, to study things like the solar wind.

FARQUHAR: And felt like we took the spacecraft away from them too early. They thought that - well, it was in the newspapers, even - that we stole their spacecraft. We didn't steal it. We just borrowed it for a while. That's what I tried to tell them.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: After he flew it through the comet's tail, he'd set it on a course that would bring it back, eventually.

FARQUHAR: OK. So we took it away in 1983, and you get it back in 2014. How many years is that? Oh, that's about 31 years.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Bob Farquhar is now 81 years old. He's been called the master of getting to places. His genius is inventing esoteric flight plans that take advantage of gravitational boosts from the moon and close flybys of Earth to send space probes zipping around the solar system in surprising ways. He's so adept at calculating these exotic trajectories that often, just for fun, he's made sure that key mission events fall on birthdays or anniversaries. The exploits of ISEE-3 were the first ones to show off what he could do.

FARQUHAR: Certainly, all the people in the space business know that that's my spacecraft. It's very personal with me.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: His memoir makes it clear how personal. For example, he writes that when he was hospitalized after a heart attack, the spacecraft suffered a battery failure, making him believe they shared a, quote , "supernatural connection."

FARQUHAR: It's my baby, yeah. It's something I worked on for a long time, and I had to sell it to NASA, and sell it to a lot of people.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: What Farquhar is selling now is the idea of waking up this old satellite and doing what he promised: giving it back. There's a short window in the next few months when it could be commanded to veer close to the moon's surface. The moon's gravity would change its path and basically, make it return it to the spot where it was before it went off chasing comets. One of the people he's convinced is Daniel Baker.

DANIEL BAKER: It would not just be a curiosity. It would actually be a useful scientific tool.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Baker is director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. He says these days, other satellites monitor space between the Earth and the sun. Still, this one would give them valuable additional measurements. He actually worked on ISEE-3 when he was younger.

BAKER: It's not often that something that you've sent off supposedly into oblivion sort of comes back to you; nature brings it back to you.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says during its long voyage through the vastness of space, this good little robot has presumably just been tending to its business, ready to obey whatever command might come next. He finds it satisfying that without missing a beat, it could go back to the job it was supposed to do when it launched in 1978.

BAKER: It really, to me, is a fascinating thing that we can even dream of reassembling the puzzle here and put it back the way, sort of, it was - before Bob stole the spacecraft.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Waking up an old spacecraft like it was Rip Van Winkle is not easy. People have had to dive into archives and pull out old documents to figure out things like, what language does this machine even speak? Not everyone who used to work on this thing is still around.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: James Green is sitting at NASA headquarters, where he's director of the Planetary Science Division. He's going over a list of the spacecraft's science instruments and the researchers who were in charge of them.

GREEN: Bonnard Teegarden, he's retired many years ago.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Another problem: some of the old equipment needed to talk to the spacecraft is just gone. Green says NASA got rid of it.

GREEN: Deep-space communication has changed radically over the last 25 years.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But it looks like an 18-meter satellite dish at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory still has the right hardware.

GREEN: And so NASA's given them the approval to be able to try that out.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Workers there will see how well they can communicate with the spacecraft and assess its condition. This is still kind of an unofficial effort. NASA hasn't made any firm commitment to this spacecraft, despite Bob Farquhar's relentless lobbying.

GREEN: You know, Bob Farquhar is a man of his word. If he said he would do everything he could - because he's borrowed the spacecraft - to put it back, that's what he's going to try to do.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Green says around NASA, this guy's a legend.

GREEN: We owe a lot to Bob's creativeness to get our spacecraft in locations that we want them. And so from that perspective, he's really a neat guy, really important in our field.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, he knows where he wants this spacecraft.

(LAUGHTER)

GREEN: Well, wishing doesn't make it so, and we have to at least find the health of the spacecraft before we even make the decision of doing that.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Meanwhile, Bob Farquhar isn't optimistic that it will happen.

FARQUHAR: Well, I think the chances are, oh, 50-50.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: When he sat down at home to talk about this, he was wearing plaid flannel pajamas and a robe. He wasn't feeling well. Still, he spoke for nearly two hours.

FARQUHAR: It's the most cost-effective spacecraft we ever had, and I'd like to make it even more cost-effective. It can do more missions.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But only if a command is sent soon - before late May, or early June. This is his last chance. If the spacecraft's path doesn't change, it will fly by the Earth in August. Its trajectory will bring it back again years from now, but it won't come close enough to be recaptured.